I-595 Buffer-zone Workshop Scheduled

August 14, 1986|By MICHAEL LASALANDRA, Staff Writer

After receiving the news that plenty of contractors want to build the massive interchange at State Road 7, officials of the Interstate 595 project breathed a bit easier Wednesday and turned their attention to making the new superhighway look prettier.

Highway officials and landscape architects from around the county will be holding an all-day design workshop today as a first step toward creating a buffer zone and park along the length of I-595.

The workshop is designed to come up with a plan to ``create an aesthetically pleasing highway environment,`` according to Jeffrey Siegel, Plantation landscape architect. The city of Plantation was host for the workshop.

``Our goal is to establish criteria for a buffer zone along the I-595 corridor,`` he said.

Highway spokesman Mike Sherman announced Wednesday that work on the 1.8-mile stretch from east of Southwest 136th Avenue to east of Hiatus Road is scheduled to begin the first week in September.

The stretch, which includes two pairs of bridges to take traffic over Hiatus and Flamingo roads, is scheduled for completion in the spring of 1988, said Sherman.

The bid has been awarded to Bergeron Land Development Inc. of Hollywood at a cost of $16.1 million.

As they were making that announcement, I-595 officials were anxiously waiting to see the turnout of contractors at a pre-bid conference Wednesday for the job of building the State Road 7 interchange.

The last time they advertised the job, only one contractor submitted a bid, and that, at $63.9 million, was many millions higher than the budgeted figure of between $41 million and $53 million.

As a result, the sole bid, from the Groves-Watkins firm of Tallahassee, was thrown out, and the job is being rebid.

Nearly two dozen firms, including Groves Watkins, attended the pre-bid conference Wednesday to express interest in the job.

``We`re hopeful,`` said Sherman. ``This certainly bodes well for a good response and healthy competition.``

The decision to reject the sole bid in July set the project back nearly a year and may have caused the loss of $42 million in federal funds. The new bid opening is set for Aug. 27.

Work on construction of a second major interchange, at Interstate 75, is on hold because the state has thrown out all three bids because they were too high. The low bidder, again Groves Watkins, has appealed, stopping all progress.

Because of the snags, today`s architectural workshop seems like a breath of fresh air for I-595, even though the overall project is still on schedule for completion by the end of 1990.